What LeBron Won’t Get With An NBA Title

What LeBron Won’t Get With An NBA Title, The superstar is a win away from his first ring, but it may not change his image, one writer says. Following “The Decision,” where LeBron James declared he’d take his talents from Cleveland to Miami, he went from being hero to a villain in the eyes of many. People who once rooted for his greatness started cheering for his downfall. They clapped at his inability to make the big shots at the end and reveled in his disappointment of losing to the Mavericks in last year’s NBA Finals.

With the Heat up 3 games to 1, and LeBron on the cusp of hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time in his nine-year NBA career, the question is, does finally winning the big one change how people think of the NBA’s “King.”

The answer seems to be a resounding no, and it’s not just coming from spurned Cavaliers fans.

I asked this question to my Twitter followers: If you dislike LeBron, would winning a title change your opinion? Out of the 404 people who voted, 82 percent said no, with 4.4 percent saying yes, while the other 13.6 percent said it depends on how he celebrates. Does he go down on one knee and get emotional or does he play the “me against the world” card?

“Winning helps, but you have to be perceived in a way that you’ve convinced people you’re different than what caused the perception to happen and that’s the hurdle that he is challenged with,” said Henry Schafer, executive vice president of Marketing Evaluations, which conducts the Q Scores.

Schafer said that among sports fans age 13 and older who know of LeBron, 19 percent consider him one of their favorite personalities, but 27 percent of those that know him rank him among their least favorite personalities.